Complaint Review: ATS NW Inc - Lynnwood Washington

Prior to actually starting this, I'm going to actually let you know who I am because without that context, I could be an individual with completely unfounded opinions and an unreliable source:

My name is Bryan and I was employed by ATS Northwest from February 2015- July 2016 with a 5 month gap thrown in as I took another job for a bit. I was a Tap Caller (calling prior donors) as well as a Business caller. If you have never worked here, this means I proved my sales skills on the phones and was elevated to calling our donors. I have a Bachelor's Degree from San Francisco State University and currently work in Sales for a very well funded Tech Company several blocks from Century Link and Safeco. That said, here is my response and my story:

What this job is, is cold calling residential as well as businesses throughout the state to get them to donate money to charity. Yes, the computers are quite old, but then again, this company is not here to have the latest cloud storage and Salesforce CRM software; that is not what this ATS is attaining to emulate. "Matilda" had noted that "5 workers were treated like gold, while the others were on borrowed time." This ex-employee is sadly one of the people in today's world who feels that she should just be handed things and not work for it.

An ATS employee on borrowed time is quite simply an employee who does not take the job seriously and comes up with excuses for why they cannot sell. I was not with ATS during this time, but I guarantee you those 5 workers stuck to the script, pitched with passion, and made every call count. To succeed here that is what you must do. One must have unwavering faith in the script and "fall in love with the process" as the morning manager Jamey told me on many occassions. 

ATS Northwest is, in my opinion, the best sales training ground out there for someone with no sales background. Here, you will learn sales psychology, tactics, specific "moves," and all the ammunition to exceed here and beyond. ATS is the best sales boot camp one will ever have. I myself used the work ethic instilled by the managers here to parlay it into Technology Sales. I became highly marketable in the tech world because of the skills I learned at ATS: cold calling, tenacity, and the ability to work warm leads. New York, New York, this place ain't, but as ol' Blue Eyes said, "If you can make it here you can make it anywhere." I firmly believe this to be true as other organizations have been marveled at my work ethic, knowledge of sales psychology, and phone tactics. 

Life is truly what you make of it, and either you can complain about how bad the job sucks, or bust your a**, use the managers on shift who are wealths of sales knowledge and then market yourself as a skilled cold caller. Trust me, hard working, skilled, tenacious cold callers who are constantly working to hone their craft and be students of the sales game are far and few between. I decided to write this rebuttal because I was sick of seeing tired excuses of salesman who have spent their entire lives complaining about how unfair their lives were. Is this a job you will want to stay at forever?

Quite frankly, no. But use it to spring board yourself to making the big bucks and build the fundamentals you need. Thank you Rob, Jamey, Brandon, Nick, Robbie, and Carmichael who I had the pleasure of working under. I am using all you taught me and applying it to the innovative world of tech sales and I continue to wow them everyday with an unparalleled work ethic not seen in the entitled UW and Ivy League sales staff who rely strictly on their diploma. Hard work pays off.

i have held many "telemarketing" jobs and this one was by far the worst.  the interview was great, although, I will say i noticed the computers were older than i....maybe that's because I was going to work raising money for charities?  so i thought. I was never trained, just given a script and repeatedly screamed at for not rebutting many many times, even if someone said they were busy.  when i asked questions like how much of this is going to the charity, i couldn't even get an answer.  It was a sweat shop situation, where there are like 5 employees that have been there forever and are treated like gold, the rest are literally on borrowed time. If you did not push people hard enough when they said no, the manager would bring a can of "weak sauce" which was a jar of pennies, jingle it in front of everyone and you had to keep it on your space until someone else got it....again, no training at all, just here, do this, and if you don't do it right, it's thier amusement.

when i found out it was a scam (i was already looking for something else) i didn't even care to push people into this  so i was eventually yelled at so much one night (the only night i did not get one sale) i was pushed to tears....kept pushing to the end of my shift, and never went back.

i don't blame anyone for needing a job, but this one was not for me... i've worked many of these jobs as i said but the rate of "i'm on the do not call list"calls we got on the auto dialer was ridiculous....i was at one point raising money for a "charity event" that was supposed to be at a major venue, when i called the venue it wasn't even scheduled.  the measly 10 bucks an hour just wasn't worth the disrespect.

oh and the topper on the cake?  my friend wanted to help (when i was new and thought i was helping) so she had me call and I signed her up for a thirty something dollar dontation for a missing children campaign....then her brother took ill and she couldn't afford it, naturally all extra money went to getting her back east to his final days.   they are now sending her letters saying "THIS IS AN ATTEMPT TO COLLECT A DEBT".  I kid you not.  So we are waiting to see if it goes further, i will stand behind her if i need to. ridiculous place, and i don't doubt very very little is going to charity.

i sincerely apologize to all people i called, for my part, i would not blame you for hanging up on me!!!

I worked for this company for a very short time, maybe a few weeks, a few years back and wow what I saw in those 2 weeks blew me away! I, like most employees there, sat in front of old computers that did automatic calling for us and many people we called were upset because they were on the "do not call list", but there number stayed in our database to call them. This is just the beginning...

My boss, (not the owner of the company but a manager, my boss there) was very inappropriate, towards me (a female) and toward the customers, I've never seen anything like it. He would listen in on our phone calls and jump in sometimes and take over, if kids answered the call sometimes he would make inappropriate remarks to them and on one occasion I remember upset a kid so bad and made the child cry and when the parents got on the phone, he acted completely oblivious to what just happened and continued to sell the product, this was his form of "entertainment" in the office.

And yes the companies that they are calling for may be good companies that doesn't make ATS NW a good place, in fact it makes them horrible if its true they are ripping off places like the Shriners, Free Masons, The Washington Council of the Blind, etc...not to mention making them look bad with this kind of representation, shame on them! I hope something was done about this place, I see this was written awhile ago but if they are still around I wouldn't support them and that's from personal experience.

And yes I am a ex employee but have no grudges toward them, I quit on my own, I wasn't the best sales person there because I wouldn't pressure the customers but it was clear I was kept around because I was "eye candy", which yes I was told. They didn't really train me, I received a paper with what I was to say to each customer and even responses I was to use, that was about the gist of my training.

But I hope this helps someone make an informed decision if they are still around! I am all about helping people and charities but in an honest way, just be careful on who you support these people threw because the charities or companies may have no idea the call center is "crooked", direct donations may be the best!

The Washington Secretary of State has a report on line that includes the financial reporting submitted by ATS NW. The following is an excerpt from the report:  
"Contributions to ATS NW Inc = $895,886. Amount returned to charity clients = $123,219.  
According to the financial information shown, 14% of the contributions raised by this organization were returned to or retained by the charity client(s)."
You decide whether you wish to donate funds to charities via this fund raising organization.
 Read more from the report at http://www.sos.wa.gov/charities/search_detail_cfr.aspx?cfr_id=28 

ATS is a Big Scam! I know the State of Washington is investigating them. This company is a Big Joke and Fraud. They are the Bait and Switch Scammers. I hope they get Shut Down. Bad training and a Loser that is the General Manager who couldn't train his way out of a papersack! Complete idiot like the Owner.

 I think whoever wrote this report is a former employee with a grudge. I know Rob Turner and the office managers at ATS and they are all wonderful people. Not only does Rob give jobs to people who can't get work anywhere else. The work that they are doing is supporting honorable institution like the Free Masons, The Foundation for missing and exploited children and The Washington Council of the Blind. None of which could be described as "stupid'. If Rob has a problem it's that in a business like his you can't go without getting complaints and when one of those people complaining decides to take it to the next level, guess what. You get investigated. Just like if I call the police on someone they get investigated. A down side to not turning anyone away that is looking for a job is that not everyone is equipped to speak on the phone. So when that happen complaints get made, employee's get let go. As far as this "bait and switch" I would love to know how you cold call bait and switch. The bottom line is that all of the wonderful institutions I named perform vital functions for people who couldn't do for themselves and Rob Turner and all the other wonderful people at ATS help them do that, period. I would love to hear from anyone who says different.

Sincerely

Dusty-D